Cheap Flights: a Ticket to Skin Cancer

Doctors in Britain have blamed a 50% rise in the incidence of skin cancer on cheap flights to the beach, reports the Independent. Statistics from Cancer Research UK and the British travel agents' association confirm that easier access to sunny climates have made melanoma the nation's fastest-rising disease, particularly among young people.

Melanoma, once a cancer confined to the upper classes, now affects larger and younger swaths of the population as ever more travelers take cheap holidays to the sun. Since skin cancer can take decades to develop, doctors estimate that rates will continue to rise in coming years. (More skin cancer stories.)